In this chapter, we will focus on the Kali Linux installation process. First, we will discuss the min-
imum installation requirements (section
4.1
, “
Minimal Installation Requirements
” [page 66]) to
ensure that your real or virtual system is well-configured to handle the type of installation that
you will pursue. Then we will go through each step of the installation process (section
4.2
, “
Step
by Step Installation on a Hard Drive
” [page 66]) for a plain installation, as well as for a more se-
cure installation involving a fully encrypted file system. We will also discuss
preseeding, which
allows unattended installations (section
4.3
, “
Unattended Installations
” [page 95]) by providing
predetermined answers to installation questions. We will also show you how to install Kali Linux
on various ARM devices (section
4.4
, “
ARM Installations
” [page 98]), which expands Kali’s capabili-
ties far beyond the desktop. Finally, we will show you what to do in the rare case of an installation
failure (section
4.5
, “
Troubleshooting Installations
” [page 99]), so you can work through the issue
and successfully finish a tough install.
4.1. Minimal Installation Requirements
The installation requirements for Kali Linux vary depending on what you would like to install. On
the low end, you can set up Kali as a basic Secure Shell (SSH) server with no desktop, using as little
as 128 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended) and 2 GB of disk space. On the higher end, if you opt to
install the default Xfce desktop and the
kali-linux-default metapackage, you should really aim for
at least 2048 MB of RAM and 20 GB of disk space.
Besides the RAM and hard disk requirements, your computer needs to have a CPU supported by
at least one of the amd64, i386, or arm64 architectures.
